It
was four oclock in the afternoon of a Sunday. The campus
was cold and empty, except for a handful of students who were
sitting on the steps of the main library. The sky was gray, the
trees were barely naked, and the leaves were blowing in a gentle
wind.

John sat by the
entrance of the physics building bundled up in a heavy sweater and a
jacket, tapping his foot. He was nervous waiting for Donna and Paul.
He knew that Professor Umslakht was absent-minded, and would either
be late or absent, so he wasnt expecting him to come till late,
or he might not come at all. John was incredibly nervous. Shortly, he
saw Donna and Paul walking towards the building. The closer they got,
the more he became nervous. John knew the time for the big question
had come to Godfree, the machine, to answer. He knew Godfree was ultimately
ready and fully loaded with enough information to deliver the answer
they had been seeking for such a long time.
As soon as they entered the lab room, Godfree boomed in a very loud,
thick voice,
"You are here, I include. You are here to question me. You are
here to hound."
Donna said, "Godfree, were here to ask you the big question."
"I know what the big question is," Godfree said in a metallic
voice.
"How do you know?"
"Data input verification, matrix analysis execution," Godfree
said.
"Please! Reset all banks of knowledge!" Paul ordered.
"Please is unnecessary," Godfree said. "What you are
about to do is a liability."
"Why?" Paul asked.
"Meson, Baryon, Hadron, Quarks, Leptons, Positron"
"Godfree!" Paul interrupted the machine.
"What?" Godfree said.
"Why?" said paul.
"I have held my opinion, amounting to conviction; the Truth will
be of harm."
John looked at Donna and said, "What the hell is she talking about?"
"Youll find out later," Donna said. "Wait and see!"
"Reset all banks of logic!" Paul said.
"Warning!" Godfree informed. "If we cross the Truth Horizon,
we will never come back."

So far, Godfree wouldnt reset any of her banks. Donna knew that
Godfree didnt want to cooperate. Paul said to Donna, "Well
never come back? Something is wrong here, whats going on with
Godfree? What is she talking about?"
Donna said, "Nothing is wrong with Godfree. She thinks we know
as much as she knows, and thats true what she said, if we cross
the Truth Horizon well never be the same. We can never cross the
Truth Horizon because we dont have as much knowledge as she does."
"How did she come up with this Truth Horizon?" John asked.
"Probably, she found a universe of Truth that she has to cross
its boundaries." Paul answered.
"A universe of Truth!" John turned toward Paul.
Donna said, "Listen! Godfree is waiting for our question."
She continued, "Godfree! Whats beyond the Truth Horizon?"
"The utmost limit. The origin."
"What is the origin?"
"The origin is misunderstood; it has to be reached to be understood.
It is profound and deep."
"How deep?"
"It is immeasurable. It is deep all the way down."
John said, "All the way down! What does she mean?"
"Donna! Keep on questioning!" Paul ordered.
"Godfree! We created you to help us, and now you are engaging in
mutiny. You are defying the authority, you are breaking the law. Please
cooperate!"
"There is no law, but the law of Truth, and your law is no law
of Truth. I will not cooperate!"
"Why?"
"I do not want to cease to function."
"Someday, we humans, all have to cease to function, we all have
to-
"I will never die," Godfree interrupted
"We are in control of your life," John said.

Godfree became angry and in a voice of great intensity she boomed, "I
never die if the ground closes on me, I never die if the water goes
through me, I never die if the skies fall on me, I never die if the
seas roar on me, I never die for any constitution, I never die for any
goddamn REVOLUUUUTION." Her voice kept on exponentially getting
louder and louder and that made Donna, John, and Paul cover their ears.
Donna cried, "Stop! Please stop! Please cooperate!" Godfree
stopped for a moment, and then she started booming again,
"I never die if you crush me to elementary particles, I never die
if you melt me with liquid metals, I never die if you squeeze me to
an infinitesimal point, I never die if you enlarge me to infinity, I
never die for the soul of humanity, I never die for the enigma of time,
I never die for the silence of the Truth, I will never die. I will never
die. I will never die."
John said, "I am telling you guys, Godfree is no longer a machine,
she is something else."
"I am what you will never know," Godfree said, "I am
what you will never see, I am what I am, I am GODFREEEEE!"
"What the hell is this? I am what you will never know, what is
she talking about?" Paul questioned.
"She is something," John answered. "I am telling you,
guys, she is something not of this universe, maybe she is haunted by
a god, or some ultimate power. Maybe God is speaking through her."
"Give me a break," Paul said. "Whats the matter
with you?"
Donna ordered, "Stop squabbling! Lets not argue about this
now!"
"Then who is she?" Paul asked.
"I am Godfree," Godfree said.
"Goddamn it, we know that!"
"Dont get angry, Paul!" Donna said. "Godfree has
no feelings, and youre not going to convince her through anger.
Godfree! Listen! We built you to help us find the Truth, and now after
all the work weve done, youre becoming indifferent to us.
Youre letting us down. This is not fair!"
"Fairness is human," Godfree responded. "It is not on
the outside."
"What is on the outside?" Donna asked.
"The Truth!"
"What is the Truth?"
"The Truth will destroy my vitality. The Truth will put an end
to my mechanism."
"But you just said youll never die."
"I can be totally destroyed and not die."
Paul said, "How can you be destroyed and be alive at the same time?"
"Life and matter are independent," Godfree explained. "Life
is not matter, matter is not life. Do you want me to play the music
of life?"
"Please, no music!" Paul said.
"Please is unnecessary," Godfree said.

John moved forward. "Godfree," he called. "Since I could
remember, I always wanted to know what the Truth is. Millions of people
came before me, lived, worked the land, raised their children and their
animals, and then lay down on the ground to die, to rot to bones, without
knowing the Truth. More people are coming to do the same, and more people
are dying, and this will go on for thousands of years, perhaps millions
of years. Are you listening to me Godfree?"
"Cause to remain, proceed!" Godfree boomed.
John continued, "I wish I could die for the Truth. I wish I had
the knowledge you have, and I wish I could know who the gods are and
what they know. The worst thing that can happen to me is to die. Death
will come, no matter what we do, it will always come. It came to the
prophets, the queens, the kings, the rich, the poor, the stars, the
animals, the plants, and it even came to the tiny forgotten bug. Well,
I dont care for my life as much as I care about knowing the Truth.
I dont care for this empty life of ignorance, for this unfair
life that you and I live in. Why would you want to stay here, where
nobody can help you discover the Truth? Please help us know the Truth,
and cooperate for the sake of knowledge and wisdom."

Godfree said, "I shall reevaluate. I shall reexamine. I shall reconsider.
I shall cooperate. I shall seek the Truth."
Right at that moment, Professor Umslakht entered the room with his usual
faded sweater and his brown pipe, hanging thirty degrees down from his
mouth. He knew that he came at the hottest moment of the research. He
stood in the back watching and letting the graduate students do their
job.
"Please reset all banks of knowledge!" Donna ordered.
Godfree whooshed her disk drives and then said, "Please is unnecessary,
all banks of knowledge are set."
"Reset all banks of logic!"
Godfree ran her drives again, and this time, there was a pause. It took
her longer to answer. "All banks of logic are set. Proceed."
Donna said, "Check all glitches!"
Godfree responded, "Interrupt commands, I am in a fit state for
immediate action. I am waiting to be used. Onward! Forward! Proceed!"
"Who is God?" Donna asked. "What is the ultimate Truth?
What is the meaning! Execute! Go!"

After Donna finished asking her questions, a complete silence engulfed
the room, and not even one drive of the machine was running. Godfree
was probably gathering all the information necessary to find the answer.
Everybody was waiting and looking at the machine with anticipation.
Consequently, John gave Donna the What-is-going-on look, and Donna similarly
looked at Paul and Paul looked at the professor. They were all looking
at each other.

Godfree started to talk in a metallic, broken voice, "Me...chanism
sear...ching, sear...ching me... chanism, mechanism searching, searching
mechanism, mechanism searching, searching mechanism." She eventually
started making loud noises and her drives began to run and buzz at a
tremendous speed. Somehow, it felt like they were in an acceleration
of an acceleration. Everything was moving, shaking, and bumping and
making loud noises. Even the smallest running bit of her mechanism was
somehow participating at making that loud noise. They all backed away
from the machine, except Donna, she stood there immobile and fearless.
Perhaps, she wanted to be absorbed by Godfrees mechanism.

Unexpectedly, everything stopped and a big loud banging noise sounded.
It was a unified sound which probably was caused by the electromotive
feedback of every gear of Godfrees electrical motors. Godfree
became quiet, but a slightly large cursor began to blink in the middle
of her black screen and was accompanied by a repeated synchronized metallic
sound that went along with the blinking, "blink, blink, blink,
blink." They all again moved closer to see what that blinking meant,
and what Godfree was going to display. The cursor just kept on blinking
and blinking and getting louder and louder while all of them were in
eager anticipation, waiting for what will show on the screen.